How do I make my starter dough manageable, not lose and sticky
Today I baked with my new whey starter for the first time. I made 2 pizzas. The taste of the crust was wow!.. so complex and delicious, unlike the one-dimensional taste we're used to with IDY. My kids were amazed at the rich amazing taste.
However, one problem came up. The dough was difficult to handle, and the balls went flat in little time, and it was sticky and wetter than I'm used to, although I'm using my usual hydration percentage. It seems as if it lost its gluten, although the dough had a very nice net of strands after bulk fermentation just before shaping. besides, there was zero oven rise, although the crust was not dense, but there were little to no holes. Another indication that my dough lost its gluten.
So my question is: is that normal for dough made with sourdough starters? to be sticky, wet and hard to manage?
is there any advice you can give me to keep the gluten in my dough, and make my dough manageable, and rise in the oven? I could try reducing the hydration, but I hope that your tips allows me another route. My usual hydration is 70% because I use a no-knead method to make my deep-dish, Sicilian-style pizzas.
It sounds to me like the dough has over proofed... has all the typical signs. The "nice set of strands" after the bulking could be taken as over proofing also. Got a photo?
Try using less sourdough starter, perhaps half of what you already used (adding in more flour and water to the dough) and see if that works better. Sourdoughs get wetter as they ferment (bacterial action) more so than yeasted doughs so you may want to start out with a slightly dryer dough than what you are used to. Just slightly lower the hydration one or two %. The other thing would be to include stretching & folding the dough while it rises to maintain shape.
Depending on the amount of pre-fermented dough (starter included) you may want to chill the dough after it starts rising. Divide and Shape when cold and easier to manage at 70% hydration.
ditto on the stretch n folds in particular or maybe mix in some flour with more gluten (I like King Arthur bread flour). There have been times when I had the floppy dough issues while trying to make pizza and wound up tearing the dough when trying to stretch it thin, so I squashed the dough back into a ball and tried again; sort of an extreme stretch and fold. The dough was noticeably more difficult to stretch afterward and held its shape better. Wet hands and a stretch and fold or three make for an easy way to get your dough to hold the shape you give it. You can do it right in the bowl you are using. Some stretch n fold routines say to do 45 minutes in between, but you can shorten the interval and do some refrigeration if you think overproofing is an issue.
Thanks Mini Oven and Southbay for the great tips.
I also noticed from past experience, that if I use whey instead of water, the resulting dough would be firmer, less wet with great oven rise and holes. It seems to boost the effect of yeast, making the dough peaks in dramatically less time than usual, makes the crust darker, and tastes delicious.
But that was when I used IDY. Now, with SD, do you think it's OK to use whey instead of water? does whey interfere with SD starters in any way? or would it enhance it like it does with idy?
ps. the whey I use is from bonnyclabber, so its a bacterial whey, no acid or rennet involved.